Tour de France Wildcards

Tuesday, 28 January 2014

The four invitations for the Tour de France have gone to Cofidis, IAM Cycling, NetApp-Endura and Bretagne-Séché.

Antoine Blondin once wrote the Tour de France was “primarily a story of geography” but these four invitations tell a story of gentle nationalism with home team Bretagne-Séché getting the nod ahead of MTN-Qhubeka.

Cofidis are no surprise. They’re French which helps but remain a decent team, at least when viewed against the other Pro Continental candidates. Rein Taaramäe can liven up a race and new recruit Julien Simon is a punchy finisseur but there’s no contest if Peter Sagan is present. You might need reminding but Nicolas Edet was the Vuelta’s King of the Mountains and the biggest draw is Daniel Navarro, a stealthy ninth in the Tour de France last summer.

IAM Cycling was the obvious pick. The best-dressed team have strengthened with Sylvain Chavanel and Matthias Frank and have a solid roster. They are Swiss but with a French touch whether the French managers or their base in the French-speaking part of Switzerland but there’s more than appealing to Christian Prudhomme’s patriotism, see Heinrich Haussler, Gustav Larsson or Thomas Löfkvist. Plus Johann Tschopp won the mountains jersey in Paris-Nice last year help to seduce ASO. Hard to imagine ASO leaving them out.

NetApp-Endura are good pick thanks to Leopold König. The Czech climber won big in the Vuelta and Tour of California last year and could animate the race. But the rest of the squad aren’t mouthwatering. Bartosz Huzarski is a good stage race specialist who you can expect to go in breakways in the mountains and Tiago Machado had some good results with Radioshack like a podium in the Criterium International and the Tour de Romandie but has gone off the boil. The squad has a Scottish sponsor and some British starters seem appropriate given the Yorkshire grand départ but that’s up to the thoughtful team manager Ralph Denk.

The big surprise is Bretagne-Séché. All the teams have had their share of glory with big wins, grand tour jerseys and more. But there’s a cliffedge drop now as Bretagne-Séché won just four races in 2013 and all at the *.2 UCI level, a chasm from the Tour de France. Even getting riders into the day’s breakaway won’t be easy and you sense the media are ready to tie ribbons on them and chase them around France like scapegoats. But nobody expects much to start with. The squad has recruited the Feillu brothers, although sprinter Romain has been suffering from an inflamed intestine. Brice should be good for a breakaway in the mountains. Eduardo Sepulveda, Florian Vachon, Merhawi Kudus and Stake Laengen have promise but they could be too young. Whoever starts this is a jump into the deep end but that’s part of the adventure.

The losers are MTN-Qhubeka. The South African team didn’t get picked for the Giro and now they’ve got the busy tone from ASO with and not even a trial in Paris-Nice or the Dauphiné. They have an exciting story but perhaps ASO are waiting for them to shine more in Europe. A Vuelta wildcard surely awaits where they’ll get the chance to imitate NetApp-Endura. If they thrive, 2015 awaits.

Note just three invitations. ASO says it’s safer to have fewer teams on the smaller roads. It’s cheaper too.

Sans Quintana
If we got the invitations arguably the bigger story today is who won’t be there with Movistar confirming that Nairo Quintana will ride the Giro. It’s a loss for the Tour but gives the Giro a needy boost and may prompt panic attacks for Joaquim Rodriguez and Cadel Evans. Picking which race to ride has seen riders running game theory scenarios of what the outcomes will be. Rodriguez wants to finally land that grand tour win and knows he can’t beat Froome so he’s doing the Giro too. Quintana was hesitating and rightly so because this year’s Tour only has one time trial meaning it is within his reach.

Conclusion
In times past these wildcards were often consolation prizes awarded to French teams to keep them afloat. But with Ag2r La Mondiale, Europcar and FDJ.fr in the World Tour there are already three French teams but this didn’t stop ASO inviting two more plus a francophone Swiss team and a half-German, half-British team to please the Yorkshire crowds and then play the reconciliation card as the race passes war memorials. But these three teams each have their place in sporting terms, it’s the fourth spot that’s harder to fill.

ASO can invite four from the 17 Pro Continental teams but in reality there were few choices for July as most teams don’t have the depth of talent needed for the sport’s highest rendez-vous. I wrote last year that IAM, Cofidis and NetApp-Endura were the first three choices. But the fourth choice was hard, Bretagne-Séché’s French status seems to have got them past MTN-Qhubeka. But for all the analysis, it’s the narcissism of small differences as the Tour looks set to be dominated by Team Sky, Astana, Movistar and OPQS.

A reasonable set of wildcards by ASO for LeTour. Same for the choices of RCS for Il Giro. Each country is trying to build up some homegrown teams in an era of financial difficulty. IAM (I can not stop thinking of the US pet food operation when I see them..and “best dressed”…really?) sealed their dance card with Chavenel, no surprise there. I’m rather happy to see Quintana opt for the Giro over the Tour as I’m one who likes the progression idea – win one of the other GT’s before throwing your hat in the ring for Le Beeg Shew. Now I wait for the REAL racing season to start, with Paris-Nice/Tirreno-Adriatico.

No one seems able to maintain solid form for two straight years lately. Wiggins/Fabian/Gilbert/Boonen (who am I leaving out?) all suffered very bad years (bad luck, lack of motivation, whatever) after a run of dominance the year before. Be interesting to see what happens with Froome. Bet if he looks off form Movistar will shift him back to the Tour.

All true but different stories to each case although all managed to get giant contracts based – rightly – on their success. I think Froome seems ready to repeat, he has a contract but his win last year was consistent and there’s no change on his personal life. For now he’s the clear pick for the Tour but let’s hope others upset this certainty.

Also the gap in ability between the riders on Drapac (and mst Pro Conti teams) and World Tour riders is huge. Drapac with its current roster wouldn’t get more then 3 or 4 finishers in a 3 week race and thats if they did nothing by sitting in. Without a team doing other one week World Tour tours, with long stage distances and the speed of the World Tour it is very hard to step up. Use the Tour Down Under as an example. Yes they were in the ‘break of the day’ but when the pace was on, their best riders were a long way behind.

Drapac would be 2017 at best, with an increased budget, bigger roaster, better riders and a buckload of good fortune. Id say more likely is a Giro or Vuelta start in 2016 and if successful again in 2017.

To be clear i’m not critisising Drapac at all. Its just the average follower just doens;t understand the gap between World Tour and the rest. It is a long and expensive process to get an entire team up to that level.

To highlight the difference, look at Nathan Haas and Steele Von Hoff (one of the best names in the peloton) both dominated the 2011 National Road Series in Australia, but both have taken time to adjust to the World Tour.

The gap to WT is much much bigger than (it seems) so many people realise. Talking rider-specific for a moment, the Warren Barguils (for example) who burst onto the scene in their first year as a pro, are massively the exception not the rule. Vast majority of riders take at least the first year riding in WT races just to adjust to much faster pace of the WT and the much greater challenge of positioning and just moving around the bunch.

Agree. A shame really, but says everything about the Spanish mentality to past history. Also reminds us that having two potential leaders (SKY) offers no guarantee that large financial investment will produce the desired result.

Everyone has been deriding Andy Schleck for a long time for his single-minded occupation with TdF, despite not winning any GT and being the Poulidor to Contador’s Anquetil. Now that Movistar management makes a wise decision to groom Quintana for future greatness and make him ride arguably a race that is much more suited to his strengths, people are complaining that he will never win TdF, because he lacks champion’s mentality or other such nonsense. O tempora o mores!

Given the racist taunts still present in Euro League football, could the decision to leave out MTN-Qhubeka from TdF and other ASO races be based on considerations for black African riders’ safety? Even though Europcar has two black riders and one Asian rider, they are literally a small minority, but with an entire team on the road, they might be more easily targeted. Especially with many Europeans blaming dark skinned minorities for high unemployment locally. After all, next to the National Hockey League in America and pro golf, cycling is the most white pro sport our there.

Net-App Endura seems a canny choice. they may not be well known on the European circuit but they will be a draw for the Grand Depart with local hero Scott Thwaites. Expect lots of coverage about that on BBC Look North and the ITV one that nobody watches. .

I suspect this will set the scene for “plucky British underdogs” and help keep the Brits watching after the race returns to the France. Add to the that the WWI factor – it’s a shoe in to have a British breakaway rider noodling along a battlefield for the UK TV audience numbers……Short of feeding the team on powdered egg and bully beef it’s cracking general interest, 7pm BBC1 stuff.